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An Onward! essay is a thoughtful reflection upon software-related technology. Its goal is to help the reader to share a new insight, engage with an argument, or wrestle with a dilemma. A successful essay is a clear and compelling piece of writing that explores a topic important to the software community. The subject area should be interpreted broadly, including the relationship of software to human endeavors, or its philosophical, sociological, psychological, historical, or anthropological underpinnings. An essay can be an exploration of its topic, its impact, or the circumstances of its creation; it can present a personal view of what is, explore a terrain, or lead the reader in an act of discovery; it can be a philosophical digression or a deep analysis. It can describe a personal journey, perhaps that by which the author reached an understanding of such a topic. Regardless of its form or subject, an essay must have "meat." It must must provide some insight or argument (and the reader should be left - perhaps after a bit of reflection - in no doubt what the claimed insight or argument is); it should show a keen mind coming to grips with a tough or intriguing problem; it should leave the reader with a feeling that the encounter was worthwhile. Essays will be rigorously peer-reviewed, using a process similar to (but separate from) the reviewing process for technical papers. An essay should have these characteristics:
Examples: To get your imagination going, here are a couple of (strongly contrasting) past essays:
DatesDeadline for Paper Submission: April 20, 2009Notification of Acceptance or Rejection: June 3, 2009 PublicationAccepted essays will be presented at the conference, published in the OOPSLA 2009 Proceedings, and will appear in the ACM Digital Library. The author or authors of accepted essays may choose the form of the presentation.How to SubmitElectronic submission of essays is required through the Onward! submission system.Submissions must be in ACM SIGPLAN 10 point format; templates for Microsoft Word and LaTeX are available at http://www.acm.org/sigs/sigplan/authorInformation.htm. For ease of reviewing, please include page numbers in your submission. (Note that the SIGPLAN formats differ from the standard ACM formats in some respects.) Essays must be submitted in PDF format. PDF files must be created to allow printing, and must be readily printable on a modestly configured color laser printer. Final camera-ready essays must also be formatted to conform to SIGPLAN Proceedings requirements. Details will be released once your essay has been accepted. Essays must be both no longer than 10,000 words and no longer than 20 pages when formatted under the SIGPLAN templates. Papers violating these guidelines will be rejected without review; contact the essays chair in advance if you have any doubts about the length of your paper. Onward! and OOPSLA provide a number of other publication venues; papers that are not accepted to the essays program may, at the discretion of the committee, be forwarded for consideration for the OOPSLA research program or as an Onward! paper. Essays must not have been previously published, and must not be concurrently submitted for publication elsewhere (including journals and formal proceedings of conferences and workshops). Violation of this policy will result in rejection of the essay. See the SIGPLAN republication policy for more details http://www.acm.org/sigs/sigplan/republicationpolicy.htm. For additional information, clarification, or questions, please contact the essays chair at essays@onward-conference.org Committe |